SACRAMENTO, CA - FEBRUARY 19: A view of the California State Capitol February 19, 2009 in Sacramento, California. After days of wrangling, the California State Senate secured the necessary two-thirds majority ... more

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Field Poll: Support for Constitution changes

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Most California voters polled in a statewide survey believe there should be major changes to the state Constitution through a constitutional convention, but they oppose some of the main proposals for reforming the document.

The Field Poll to be released today found that 51 percent of California voters believe "fundamental changes" should be made to the state Constitution and that voters should have the only say on whether proposed changes are adopted.

But 52 percent of state voters oppose lowering the two-thirds threshold to pass a budget in the state Legislature to a simple majority, and 69 percent oppose amending Prop. 13 to allow the Legislature to raise taxes with a majority vote.

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"There is much here that the public really is resisting," said Mark DiCamillo, director of San Francisco's Field Poll. "It's almost as if they are going to have to be fed some medicine and will have to be coaxed into accepting" changes.

Fifty-six percent of voters support increasing the simple majority threshold to amend the state Constitution to two-thirds, and 75 percent said sponsors of ballot initiatives should be required to identify how the state would pay for the proposals.

Nearly two-thirds of voters also oppose replacing the corporate income tax and state sales tax with a new tax that would apply to more businesses.

The idea was proposed by the Commission on the 21st Century Economy in its final report to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature last month. Legislative committees are considering the recommendations.

Voters do not support the commission's recommendation to reduce the number of tax rates from six to two to counter big swings in revenue from year to year.

The Bay Area Council, a business-sponsored public policy organization, is crafting a ballot measure for November 2010 that would call for a constitutional convention. John Grubb, a senior vice president with the organization, said that its polling is similar to the Field Poll but that a higher percentage of people they polled support the convention.

Grubb said he believes opposition to individual proposals would lessen if voters are presented with an entire package that results from a public process.

"We think that's one of the draws of a constitutional convention, because we think you could have a compromise that emerges," he said.

The Field Poll was based on a random sample of 1,005 California voters contacted by phone. It has a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.